I use VMs, deal with images, video rendering, dozens of browser tabs open. I can make really good use of an i7 & 8GB of memory to the extent that I wish I had 16GB. Depends on how big the project and what your using it for specifically: VMs, Video, 100 tabs open, etc. Get and SSD if you can .. the difference is very, very noticeable. Karl

Everyone's balance point is different. At first I found it hard to work from home with my son & wife as they're very demanding. This forced me to be a lot more focused at work as working from home was spotty. Now I've got a routine where I work hard while at work but when I go home my first priority is my family. After my son goes to bed, before he wakes up and sometimes in the middle of the night I'll get up and start working because I really can't sleep with work ideas bouncing around in my head. So far this has made me more productive at home and at work. He's now in school so I have more time but I really appreciate the time I spend with him as it is priceless and irreplaceable. Professor Sutor (sic) from Purdue told me many years ago: "When you work, work hard. When you play, play hard". Good Luck & Enjoy! Karl

I think these are the most popular and I'd recommend Subversion (SVN) which has several interfaces like TortoiseSVN that aren't part of the IDE (VS). Git and Mercurial are better for collaboration and networked environments. Subversion is perfect for small groups or individuals. I don't know if you can put it on a USB but you can run it standalone on one machine. Karl